A frustrated Police Chief Rosie Sizer called a press conference at central precinct this morning to hit back at Mayor Sam Adams’ assertions last week that “no officers would be let go” as part of his budget plan to cut 50 positions at the Portland Police Bureau. In fact, she’s going to have to fire 25 new hires by July 1, drop the bureau’s highly successful cold case unit, and make other “razor cuts” that will have a demonstrable impact on public safety in a year where Portland’s first quarter residential burglaries are up 40%.
“The mayor pledged on Friday that there’d be no layoffs in the police bureau,” said Sizer. “I’m very happy to hear that. I’m frankly unsure how this is going to happen.”
We’ve got a request for comment in to the mayor’s office. Jumping…
The chief said she’s looking at having to cut 12 “non-sworn” positions, and 25 sworn officers by July 1. As she broke the news, she stood next to a cardboard sign that said the cost of recruiting and training those officers was $1.7million.
Sizer said she’s been in discussions with the city’s Office of Management and Finance about how to avoid making the layoffs—perhaps incentivizing early retirements for older officers, or staving off the cuts by borrowing from next year’s budget. But there is no plan in place, yet, she said.
“And so the potential to lose hard-won talent is very real,” she said. “And I’m afraid these talented individuals that we have spent months recruiting and training may never return to city employment.”
- OFFICER Q: COULD BE FIRED
“It’s kind of a slap in the face,” said Alex Quinland, one of the new officers who is likely to be laid off. “I wanted to come to the city, and after all the money Portland has spent on me it would be a shame to have to go somewhere else.”
The chief called the mayor’s press conference “confusing” and “frustrating,” and that the budget cuts would have “an appreciable impact” on the city’s quality of life.
She also hit back at the mayor for asking her to cut an extra $3.5million this spring from the bureau’s $130million budget, after already having asked her to make significant cuts last December.
“This second tier of cuts was done very quickly and behind closed doors,” she said. “And I think the coverage from the Oregonian and other publications has not had the level of detail that the community needs and deserves to be able to advise their city council and the people of Portland.”
Portland’s residential burglaries are already up 40% in the first quarter, according to bureau statistics, compared to last year. Our robberies are up 5%, non-residential burglaries up 6%, and car prowls are up 13%. Total “part one crimes” are up 5%, year on year.
The chief is also cutting the bureau’s highly successful cold case unit. Established in 2004, the unit has convicted 25 killers and arrested 33 suspects with 8 awaiting trial.
- DETECTIVE SERGEANT WEATHEROY: APOLOGIZED TO VICTIMS’ FAMILIES
“We have 300 unsolved homicides going back to the 1970s,” said Detective Sergeant Paul Weatheroy, who runs the unit. “That’s 300 potential killers still on the loose, and 300 families that won’t be getting justice. We apologize to the families of the victims.”
The city’s narcotics unit that targets mid and high level drug dealers will also be cut.
“I think many people would agree that public safety is the core function of any government,” said the chief. “I realize that we’re going to have to take some cuts, but these are significant.”
She also had some harsh words for City Commissioner Randy Leonard: “There’s lots of frustration. I’ve been chief now for four years. One of the principle frustrations I have is in two or three of the last budget cycles we were excoriated by city council for not hiring up to our strengths, and in fact there was at least one council member who theorized that we purposely didn’t hire up to strength because we wanted to increase overtime. That wasn’t the case, it’s never been the case. When we’re finally up to strength, now we’re being asked to cut our strength.”
The mayor’s budget includes a line item for a $5million loan to Leonard’s Bureau of Development Services, to update its computer system. I asked the chief if that was galling, and she responded by repeating that public safety should be a priority over “things that it would be nice to see.”
“A firestorm is going to come without that community involvement,” said Michael Johnson, minister at the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church, watching the presser. He works in gang prevention. “It seems like there were some decisions made behind closed doors, and the real cost is going to be in the community.”
Rosie will not have to deal with this because she’s retiring this summer, right?
Damn, the police are coming out swinging. This should be fun to watch.
Sizer knew budget cuts were coming (as with every agency currently inhabiting the real world), went on a hiring spree anyway, and then turned the stunt into political theater. Now who’s fucking with Office Q.?
An enemy in Sizer is great PR for Adams. Quite clever, Sam.
“An enemy in Sizer is great PR for Adams.”
I doubt it will play out that way. Despite prevailing sentiment around here, Sam is not a popular man. The comparison of “you spent $X million on bioswales, but we had to fire X number of cops” is too easy to make, and easy for the general public to understand.
I wonder which developer has their eye on the police’s horse stable in NW Portland….
Wait. This is the (completely inept) Portland Police who overspent their budget by $5M? Right?
Firing anyone sucks. So how about we start by firing those specific cops who road rage, pull guns on innocent civilians, are stalkers, shoot unarmed Portlanders, etc?
If the PPD want to be taken seriously, they need to (1) clean their house and (2) help Sizer find the door. The more Sizer talks, the more Portland tries to get away from her. She’s like a coked up ex-Hollywood producer at a bad party telling us how things *really work.*
Sure, sure honey… I’ll be right back. Just let me freshen my drink…
When the hammer looks at a problem it always sees a nail.
According to a state strategy report sent to the Governor’s office on Friday, addiction prevention and treatment are seven times more cost-effective than street enforcement operations.
The money needs to follow the best evidence-based, outcome-driven solution. We are not all nails. Cops are not always the best solution to every problem.
Read more at http://www.mentalhealthportland.org/?p=540…
She’s frustrated???
HA!
Lew Archer for Comment of the Week. Just the last part.
@Blabby
I realize that within the circles *you* run in Sam Adams is not popular. In the circles I run in he remains very popular. Of course I don’t run in the curmudgeonly I hate fun and progress crowd so that might be where we’ll differ. Since there aren’t really any scientific popularity polls being run right now I’m wondering where you’re finding your information relating to the popularity of the mayor. Two failed recalls later doesn’t so much scream, “the mayor is incredibly unpopular,” to me like you are asserting.
Having two recall attempts against oneself is not exactly a sign of popularity either.
I don’t see a lot of politicians getting photo ops with him, do you? Have you heard anyone touting his endorsement for the election this year?
Even during the recall campaigns there was very little outspoken support for him. Who was loudly defending him and publically calling out the recall backers? Isn’t it more accurate to describe the response from ‘supporters’ as “please just let this go away and don’t make me support Sam in public”?
If he was seen in the corridors of power as a highly popular and powerful figure, would the chief of police call a press conference to pick a fight with him?
@Blabby
Vera Katz had a recall too. I don’t remember that having much of an affect on her popularity. I could start a recall now of Amanda Fritz and probably find 20K to sign a recall petition as well and I have no doubt she would be considered popular (I personally think she’s a loon).
You make a point about people not loudly defending him. The same point could be countered with nobody in power was outspoken about kicking him out of office either. Avel Gordly wasn’t exactly sitting in the seat of power. A retired state senator that ran Democrats for Gordon Smith, a businessman pissed off about something that happened a decade ago, and a bunch of right wing kookoo radio hosts were the face of the recall bunch.
So like I was saying. I realize that recalling the mayor was popular with a certain group of people. I just really doubt it was the majority like you assert.
Oh and I’m fairly certain Rosie would pick a fight either way. She knows they won’t reassign Saltzman to a different bureau until after the election and like Number Six pointed out. She’ll be retired by then anyway. She’s a short timer and she knows she can get away with it. What’s the mayor going to do? Fire her months before she retires? Publically that looks even worse.
@Lew Archer – They didn’t overspend their budget by $5 million – that turned out to be a bad number put out by the mayor’s office. Here’s a later article saying the estimate had been reduced to about $1 million. I’m sure I saw a post on this blog that it finally turned out to be $0 overspent, but I can’t find it now.
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.s…
Does the city subsidize parking for its higher paid employees? How much does the city spend on programs that serve no useful purpose for the citizens at large i.e. special interest employee group programs? How much does the city spend on coffee? When is the city going to start taking a hard look in the mirror at the high costs of medical care for its morbidly obese employees? How does car fee parkways make revenue for the city? Has the city taken any steps to save electricity by turning off the lights? How much did the city have to spend on new signs for 39th? Why did the city kill business downtown on Sundays by charging for on street parking? Why are business licences so expensive that they make it difficult for small business startups? The list goes on…. what has Adams really done for Portland?
How is it that when the police were shooting people a couple months ago all we heard was what a great job they were doing and how every crime metric imaginable proved it beyond a shadow of a doubt but now that there might be cuts suddenly a crime wave has started. Amazing how the timing works on that
Certainly there are cops that can be fired to make room for …ok maybe Im dreaming….make room for new more qualified mentally stable and have a smidgen on compassion.
They’ll scream that they have to cut detectives, and officers tasked to arrest drug dealers. You know what they will never cut? More ammo, fancy new tazers, wrongful death lawsuits (ie. police murders)?
Nope. Ticket writers. The only super motivated people on the government payroll.